Conveyer loading mechanism



Oct. 8, 1946.

E A. WILCKENS ETAL GONVEYER LOADING MECHANISM Filed Dec. 25, 1941 5 Sheets-Sheet 1 Oct. 8, 1946. E. A. WILCKENS EI' AL I CONVEYER LOADING MECHANISM Filed D60. 23, 1941 5 Sheets-Sheet 2 W W 00 v 4 0 000000000000 0000 00 00 0 00 3 N Oct. 8, 1946.

E. 5. WILCKENS ET AL 2,408,838

CONVEYER LOADING MECHANISM s Sheets-Shet 5 Filed Dec. 23, 1941 c&. g, 3946. I E. A. WILCKENS ETAL 2,408,833

CONVEYER LOADING MECHANISM Filed Dec. 25, 1941 s Sheets-Shei 4 Oct. 8, 1946. E. A. WILCKENS'ETAL CONVEYER 1.0mm macmmsm Filed Dec. 2:, 1941 5 Sheets-Sheet s Patented Oct. 8, 1946 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 2,408,838 CONVEYER LOADING MECHANISM Elbe A. Wilckens and Ellis M. Magill, Baltimore, Md., assignors to Crown Cork & Seal Company, Inc., Baltimore, Md, a corporation of New York Application December 23, 1941, Serial No. 424,174

14 Claims. (01. 2262) 1 2 The present invention comprises a conveyer rice, by a moving conveyer, rather than directly loading mechanism and, more particularly, a upon a conveyer, so that each tray will support mechanism for placing cap blanks or the like in a large number of caps during baking. Such properly spaced relationship upon a moving contrays are provided with upstanding side and end veyer. 5 walls and the delivery of caps must be so con- Certain types of containers are sealed by aptrolled that none of the caps will land upon a plying thereto a cap of substantially planar form tray end wall. If the caps are sprayed after bakand of an outside diameter larger than the bottle ing while still in trays, the trays likewise become mouth, closing being performed by bending the coated with a smooth film which enables even a edge of the cap down around the bottle mouth [0 slight jarring to Shift p Within the yso that th bent-down portion forms the cap An important object of the present invention skirt or flange. A cap of this type is disclosed is to provide an apparatus whereby caps or simiin the patent to George W. Booth, No. 1,956,217, lar articles can be placed upon and moved with issued April 24, 1934, for Container closure, and a conveyer in such manner that there will be is hereinafter referred to as a d sc-type cap. no possibility of an article being placed in or During manufacture, some disc-type caps are moved to an undesired position.

coated on their container contacting surface with As one means to attain the above object, the

a latex or similar compound in liquid form adaptinvention preferably includes an arrangement, to

ed to be subsequently baked or otherwise treated insure that articles will drop directly downwardly to form a resilient liner. In such cases, care without any tendency to move laterally.

must be exercised to prevent the caps from nest- If the caps or other articles are to be placed ing or overlapping while the compound is still in trays including upstanding edge walls, as resoft because, due to their very flat form, an overferred to above, the invention contemplates so lapped relationship will enable the lining comregulating the movement of the conveyer that at pound of one cap to contact with and adhere to proper time intervals its travel will be accelerated the other cap. In addition, if the lining is apso that the tray edge will move clear of the deplied in the form of an annular ring to a shallow positing mechanism before a cap can fall upon annular groove formed in the cap body, nesting the tray edge.

or overlapping will mar the form of the lining An important object of the present invention so that, when the cap is applied to a container, is to provide a conveyer drive of such construethe lining may not properly contact with the tion that the conveyer movement will b syncontainer mouth. chronized with the cap depositing mechanism to The necessity of keeping coated disc-type caps accelerate the movement of the conveyer at prefrom nesting until the lining or coating hardens, determined time intervals, thereby insuring that coupled with the fact that their extremely light the caps will be spaced further apart with reweight and smooth metal construction causes spect to the conveyer at predetermined intervals. them to move about when even very slightly dis- In order to prevent the caps from sliding relaturbed, has made the rapid handling of freshly tive to the conveyer, the manner of accelerating lined caps extremely difficult. More particularly, the movement of the latter must be so regulated for high rate of production, it is desirable to that it will have no abrupt change of speed. place the freshly coated caps in close juxtapo- Another object of the invention is to provide sition on a moving conveyer for subsequent baka conveyer drive mechanism of such design that ing. Positioning of the caps in close order on a it will not jar the articles to cause them to shift moving conveyer, of course, requires that each position upon the conveyer.

cap be exactly positioned at the proper point on It has heretofore been proposed to move can the conveyer, without possibility of any cap so ends to and from a viscous liner inserting mechmoving during or after the transfer that it will anism by means of a reciprocating slide operated slide upon an adjacent cap. by a rotary crank mechanism. A rotary crank An additional difiiculty arises because in some mechanism has the characteristic of decelerating c se t is desirable Subjeel? the p afte a reciprocating member at the dead center porbaking to harden the coating, to a spray of a tions of its stroke and, in order to prevent this efliquid which dries to form a hard, smooth film. feet from retarding the movement of the can If such spraying is performed while the caps tops, it has been customary to lengthen the stroke are upon the conveyer, which is the most desirable of the reciprocating element and have it' conprocedure, the conveyer has a hard smooth film tact with a can end only during the ortion of formed upon it. Thus, caps subsequently placed its stroke which is not subject to dead center deupon the conveyer are even more apt to slide celeration. with respect to each other. Such an arrangement is not feasible with shal- A still further difficulty arises from the fact low disc-type caps because the sudden contact that it is frequently desirable to place the liquid of a reciprocating pusher with the cap causes the coating containing caps within shallow trays carliquid lining material to be thrown out of its proper position in the cap. Can ends are subject to this difficulty because they are provided with deep liner receiving grooves and an overhanging edge flange.

We have discovered that by using the entire stroke of a rotary crank operated reciprocating pusher and having it contact with a cap .at the moment it is at one dead center position, the

pusher Will engage the cap while moving at minimum speed and then accelerate. This prevents sudden movement of the cap from a stationary position and thereby avoids displacement of the liquid liner. Also, the pusher engages the cap during its entire forward stroke, with the result that the latter portion of the cap movement is decelerated, avoiding too sudden stopping of the cap.

In addition, in order to prevent overtravel of the extremely light disc-type caps, the present invention preferably includes a means to stop the cap at the position to which a pusher moves it. This means is preferably a. magnetic device exerting sufiicient force to stop movement of a cap but which does not have sufiicicnt strength to prevent further movement of a cap by a second pusher.

Summarizing what has been stated above, it will be observed that an object of the invention is to insure that disc-type caps will be so moved that the lining material will not be disturbed or displaced and the caps will be stopped at the desired point.

Another object of the invention is to provide an assembly of article feeding mechanisms with a conveyer which will enable articles to be readily placed in rows upon a moving conveyer, the entire assembly occupying a minimum floor space.

The object last set forth is attained by moving the articles to the conveyer along lines at an angle to the latter. Each line of articles is handled by a feeding mechanism so positioned with respect to the conveyer that it places articles in a row extending longitudinally of the conveyer. To minimize the space required for loading the conveyer, articles may be placed thereon from opposite sides with the feeding mechanisms so arranged that while they are directly opposed so that articles will be placed at the desired points in synchronism with the conveyer movement, the feeding mechanisms will not interfere with each other.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the accompanying drawings wherein:

Figure 1 is a side elevation diagrammatically showing the apparatus of the present invention in side elevation;

Figure 2 is a plan view of the apparatus;

Figure 3 is a transverse section on the line 33 of Figure 2;

Figure 4 is a plan view of anism;

Figure 5 is an end view of the structure shown Figure 4, Figure 5 showing such structure as from the right with rea cap feeding mechit appears When viewed spect to Figure 4;

Figure 6 is a transverse sectional view on the line 66 of Figure 4;

Figure 7 is a horizontal sectional view on the line 1-1 of Figure 6;

Figure 8 is a vertical sectional view on the line 88 of Figure 5 showing one position of the cap feeding mechanism;

Figure 9 is a View similar to Figure 8 showing the cap feeding mechanism in another position;

Figure 10 is a vertical sectional view on the line Iii-40 of Figure 8 showing the cap pushing element in the position it assumes during return movement;

Figure 11 is a View similar to Figure 10, but showing the cap pushing element in the position it assumes during cap feeding movement;

Figure 12 is an end View of the apparatus looking from the right with respect to Figure 1 and showing the conveyer driving mechanism;

Figure. 13 is a side elevation of the conveyer drive mechanism looking from the left with respect to Figure 12;

Figure 14 is an enlarged vertical sectional view of the driven shaft of the conveyer drive mechanism;

Figure 15 is an axial sectional view on the line I5-I5 of Figure 13;

Figure 16 is a sectional of Figure 14, and

Figure 17 is a perspective view, with portions omitted, of the driving mechanism.

The construction and operation of the apparatus of the present invention when used to handle disc-type caps C of the type hereinbefore referred to may be generally described as follows:

Cap blanks C of the form shown in section in Figure 5 and in plan in Figure 4 have a layer C of a latex or similar compound in a liquid or viscous state placed in their annular grooves C by a liner applying or coating mechanism of wellicnown type diagrammatically shown in Figures 3 and 4 and designated by the numeral II. The mechanism I I may be generally described as comprising a vertically movable spinning element I Ia (Figure 8) to support and rotate a cap C at position X while a jet of lining compound is directed into the same from above by a nozzle Mb. The liner inserting or coating mechanism II also includes a horizontally reciprocable pusher IIc (Figure 4) including cap engaging shoulder I Id and operated in a novel manner as hereinafter set forth. On one feeding stroke of pusher IIc (to the right in Figure 4) shoulders Ild move a cap to the spinner Ma. The pusher He then retracts and on its next feeding movement a second set of shoulders He will engage the cap at position X to advance it to position Y, while th first shoulders IIcZ will move a new cap to position X for coating.

The mechanism II operates in such manner as hereinafter referred to that the shoulders II e may get immediately behind the cap at position X on return movement of pusher Me.

As best shown in Figures 1 and 2, each coating mechanism II is mounted upon a support or table I2 carrying the nozzle I Ib and its pusher No as well as an associated cap feeding mechanism I3 of the present invention. Referring to Figures 3 and 4, each cap feeding mechanism I3 comprises a plate member I4 which overlies a conveyer I5a or I5b and has its upper surface in the same plane as the upper surface of table I2. Caps placed at position Y in Figure 4 by the pusher Iic are moved by pushing elements IS included in the present invention to an aperture or cut-out I! in plate I4 to drop onto one of the eonveyers or into trays T supported on the con- Veyers,

The mechanism best shown in Figures 5 and 6 supports articles in aperture I1 for a moment and then drops them directly downwardly toward the conveyer.

view on the line I6-I6 As is best indicated in Figures 2 and 4, each mechanism I3 will drop caps in a longitudinally extending row uponthe moving conveyer or trays. For example, the mechanism 13 illustrated in Figure 4, which is the upper mechanism shown at the right in Figure 2, drops caps throughthe aperture ll in a row L, which is the innermost line of caps placed on the conveyer I51). The ability of themechanism 13 of Figure 4 to place caps in the row L is due to the fact that the plate :4 of this mechanism is of such length as to extend entirely across the conveyer [5b. Naturally, the position of the aperture width of the conveyor finally determines the row extending lengthwise of the conveyer I52) on which the caps will drop. v

As shown in Figure 2, by positioning alongside the conveyers a and lib a number of mechanisms 63, each associated with a cap lining mechanism l l a number of rows of caps may be placed on the conveyor or in trays carried by the latter.

Figures 2 and 3 illustrate how two conveyers 5c and i512 may be positioned alongside each other, each conveyer receiving four lines of caps.

Inthe event that the caps are to be placed in trays T, the conveyers We and ['51) will be-provided with tray-engaging ears or lugs as shown in Figure 5 and may be driven by the mechanism generally indicated in Figures 14 'to 1'7. This mechanism causes the movement of the conveyers to be accelerated at intervals so that the end walls E of two adjacent trays will move past the apertures ll intermediate the dropping of two caps in regular sequence. In order that this mechanism may be practicable with the use of a series of cap feeding mechanisms 13, it is necessary to space the aperture H of each mechanism by a distance either corresponding to the length of a tray, plus the space between adjacent trays, or multiples of that distance.

The specific construction of the apparatus is as follows:

The drive mechanism for the conveyer |5a and Ebb includes motors l8, one for each conveyer. and these motors, through suitable gearing, drive shafts l9 extending lengthwise of the conveyers. As indicated in Figure 1, each shaft I9 extends through the cap lining mechanism and cap feeding mechanism supports l2 to drive the liner mechanisms in synchronism with the associated conveyer. As hereinafter set forth, the cap feeding mechanisms l3 are connected to the lining mechanisms to be operated therefrom.

A cap feeding mechanism of the present invention is shown in plan in Figure 4 and it will be noted that the plate member I4 is provided with an aperture or cutout If, the latter being of an outline substantially corresponding to that of a cap C. Referring to Figures 4 and 9, the reciprocable pusher Hc which moves caps to position Y has a bracket lea secured to one end thereof, which bracket is horizontally apertured to carry a rod projecting forwardly with respect to member He. The outer end of rod 20 has fixed thereto an arm 2! also secured to the outer end of a second rod 22 slidably supported in a guide block 23 fixed to the supporting table I2. The elements 2i, 22, and 23- thus form a substantially U-shaped carrier element 24 as best disclosed in Figure 8 and adapted to reciprocate with the pusher H0 The rod 20 of carrier 24 has a pushing element 16 mounted thereon, element 16 comprising three blocks 25, 26, and 21 mounted on rod 20 for swinging movement in a vertical plane. The blocks are spaced along rod 20 but are rigidly connected together by a bar 28 I! with respect to the secured to the z of .each block as indicated .in Figures 8 and 10 so that they will swing about the rod 23 in, unison. Referring to Figures 9 and 10, the blocks 23 and 21 include laterally 5 extending arms 29 and 30, respectively. Arm 29 has a pusher finger 3i secured thereto,'the form of this finger in top plan being illustrated in Figure 4. Arm 30 has a similar pusher finger designated by the numeral 32 secured thereto. It will be noted that the fingers, in plan, are of such form as to embrace a portion of the periphery of a cap C.

The block 25 of pushing element [6 has a rearwardly projecting arm 32a secured thereto and, as best shown in Figure 8, this element has its upper and lower faces beveled at the .ends thereof to be substantially diamond-shaped. During the reciprocation of the carrier 24 and the pushing element 16 carried thereby, the follower 32a. will engage a cam plate 33 in the manner indicated in Fig-ures 10 and 11. More particularly, during movement of carrier 24 and push-, ing element 16 with pusher lie to the right with respect to Figure 8, i. e., on cap feeding movement, the fingers 3| and .32 of pushing element it will be held downwardly in contact with the surface of table 12 and plate element I4 as illustrated in Figure 11. During the returnmovement of carrier 24, that is, movement to the left with respect to Figure 8, the fingers 3| and 32 will be lifted upwardly from the surfaces 12 and it at the proper moment so that they..may move above caps C at positions Y and Z on surfaces l2 and M to get behind the caps at these positions in preparation for a cap feeding movement.

The swinging or rotating movement of the pushing element i6 about the rod 23 ofcarrier 24 is controlled by follower 32a and cam plate upper surface cated in Figures 8 and 11, cam plate 33 is provided with downwardly extending lugs or ears which coincide with ears on a trunnion 33 fixed to the surface of table [2, the two pairs .of ears being pivotally connected by a pin 34. Rearwardly of its pivot 34, or to the right ineFigures l0 and 11, a spring 36 acts upon the upper surface of cam plate 33 to urge it to the horizontal position illustrated in Figure 10, spring 33 being mounted on a stud 31 threaded in the trunnion 35 and passing through a slot 38 in the rear edge of the cam plate. A rocker 39 may be interposed between the lower end of spring 31 and the upper surface of plate 33.

As shown in Figure 8, the right-hand or forward end 40 of cam plate 33 is beveled from its upper edge downwardly and rearwardly so as to present a substantial knife edge at the upper corner of the cam plate. The rear end 4| of the cam plate 33 is beveled from its lower edge and upwardly and forwardly so as to present a knife edge at its lower corner.

The pushing element [6 is urged to the downward position illustrated in Figure 11 by a coil 635 spring '45 having one end thereof secured to the outer block 21 and the other end secured in a collar 43 locked on guide rod 20.

By the arrangement described above, when pushing element I6 is moving to the right with the carrier from the position illustrated in Figure 9, the undersurface of follower 32a forming part of the pushing element will ride up the incline M at the inner end of cam plate 33 with the result that the latter will be tilted downwardly as shown in Figure 11 against the action of spring 33 by the following construction: As best indi 36. Such turning movement of cam 33 must ccur because contact of the fingers 3| and 32 with the surface of support I2 or plate I4 prevents pushing element I6 from swinging on carrier 24. The fingers 3I and 32 will thereby be held in contact with the surfaces of elements I2 and I4 to move caps C across these surfaces toward the aperture I1 in plate I4. After the follower 32a has moved off the right-hand end of cam plate 33 as viewed in Figures 8 and 9, the cam plate 33 will swing to the position illustrated in Figure 10 and the torsion spring 45 will then act upon the pusher I6 to hold the fingers 3| and 32 in contact with surfaces I2 and I4.

On return movement ofthe pushing element I6 and carrier 24, the fingers 3| and 32 will initially remain in contact with the plate I4 but before either finger can move back against a cap at positions Y or Z in Figure 8, the cam follower 32a will move beneath the downwardly inclined end surface 40 of cam 33. Since the right-hand portion (Figure 10) of cam 33 is in contact with block 35 and cannot move downwardly, the pusher must rotate in a clockwise direction as viewed in Figures 10 and 11 to thereby cause the pusher fingers 3| and 32 to be lifted out of engagement with the surfaces of elements I2 and I4 and ride over caps at stations Y and Z. However, as soon as follower 32a has ridden from beneath the outer end of cam plate 33, pushing element I6 may move in a counter-clockwise direction (Figure 11) under the action of torsion spring 45 so that fingers 3| and 32 will come in contact with the surfaces of elements I2 or I4. B this time, the fingers will have reached such position that they will be behind caps at stations Y and Z. Obviously, on the next forward movement of pusher I I5, the cap at station Z will be advanced by finger 32 to the aperture I1 and the cap at station Y willbe advanced by finger 3| to position Z. Simultaneously, a cap will be advanced from position X in Figure 4, the position at which it was coated, to position Y by the pusher IIc to which the pushing element I6 of the present invention is secured.

The manner of reciprocating the pusher II c and thereby reciprocating the fingers 3I and 32 is diagrammatically shown at the lower left-hand portion of Figure 3. Referring to this view, a shaft 9a driven from shaft 9 has a disc 9b fixed thereto and a link 41 is pivoted to disc 9b at a point 41a. Link 41 is pivotally connected to a lever 48 pivoted at fixed point 48a and the upper end of lever 48 is pivotally connected to one end of a link 49 pivoted at 49a to slide on pusher IIc. Hence rotation of shaft 9a imparts a crank effect to link 41 to thereby reciprocate pusher II c.

The arrangement described in the preceding paragraph is so designed that the pusher I I will have a, stroke only very slightly longer than the distance between the centers of positions X and Y or Y and Z or Z and aperture I1. More particularly, the stroke of He is equal to any of the distances statedabove, plus a sufficient distance to provide a very slight overtravel at the lefthand end of its stroke in Figure 3. This overtravel insures that a cap engaging pusher will always be behind a cap before beginning its cap moving stroke.

However, each stroke of slide He begins when link 41 has a dead center relation with respect to shaft 9a and the above-mentioned overtravel is extremely slight. Therefore, at the moment any cap engaging element such as He, 3| or 32 contacts with a cap, such element will not have reached the maximum speed imparted by the crank effect between shaft 9a and pivot 41a. Hence, the cap will not be so suddenly moved from a stationary position that the liquid or viscous lining C will be jarred from groove C. Furthermore, because'the feeding stroke of each capengaging element II c, 3| and 32 terminates exactly at a point to cause a cap to stop at posi ons Y, Z and aperture I1, respectively, the latter portion of the movement of a cap is decelerated so that it will not stop so suddenly that lining material C will be jarred from groove C The manner of arranging the stroke of a crank operated pusher described above is extremely important in the handling of disc-type caps because of the tendency of the liquid to move out of groove C and perhaps upon the table surfaces over which the caps slide. Obviously, any lining material which gets upon the cap flange interferes with its proper application to a container. Also, if any lining material gets upon the surfaces such as I4 over which the caps are to slide, movement of the caps is impeded.

As best shown in Figure 9, inserts M of magnetic material are set in plate I4 and the upper surface of table or support I2 at positions Y and Z to prevent overtravel of caps when they reach these points. The use of such article stopping means with the handling of extremely light metal caps is highly important because if a cap should overtravel past position Y, for example, finger 3| would engage it while the finger is moving at a faster speed than it has during the initial portion of its stroke and the lining material might be displaced from cap groove C In order to insure that caps do not overtravel with respect to aperture I1, a groove such as I4 may be provided in plate I4, this groove increasing in depth from its point of origin near position Z to the aperture so that a cap reaching aperture I1 will strike the far edge of the aperture.

The cap feeding arrangement illustrated in Figures 8 and 9 corresponds to that shown in Figure 4 and is therefore intended to move caps to an aperture I1 in a plate I 4 aligned with the innermost row L along which caps will be dropped upon a conveyer. A cap feeding device used to drop caps along the next row L (Figure 4) would have its aperture I1 aligned with that row, the support I 2 being correspondingly positioned backwardly from conveyer I5a as illustrated in Figure 2.

A cap feeding device intended to drop caps in the row L would be mounted on a support I2 positioned still further from the edge of conveyer I So as shown in Figure 2 so that the associated aperture I1 would be above row L If row L is spaced from row L a distance corresponding to the stroke of the pushing slide He, the mechanisms I3 shown at the upper left and lower right hand portions of Figure 2 for positioning caps in rows L ma be of the form shown at the right in Figure 3. That is, only one feeding finger 3| is provided and this moves caps from a position corresponding to position Y in Figure 4 and over a short plate |4a having its aperture I1 at a point which would correspond to position Z in Figure 4. Rod 20 of the mechanism under discussion would be mounted in a bracket I9 on slide Ho and would be so short that a guide rod 22 would not be required.

It will be noted that by positioning two feeding mechanisms I3 directly opposite each other, the conveyer receives a maximum number of caps '64 to swing the within a minimum floor area. However, an important contributing factor to the success of this arrangement is that of having a mechanism 13 which places caps edge positioned opposite one which places caps in a row further from the other conveyer edge since interference between opposite mechanisms is thereby prevented. Furthermore, the positioning of mechanisms directly opposite each other enables them to place caps upon the conveyer in synchronism atproperly spaced points lengthwise Of the conveyer. That is, if the mechanisms were staggered along opposite sides of the conveyer, but plus the distance between the adjacent trays, or a multiple thereof as is required in loading trays, the area occupied by the feeding or loading mechanisms would be correspondingly increased.

In order to assure that caps will drop directly downwardly through the aperture l1 without possibility of becoming tilted during their following movement, mechanism is provided to hold each cap for an instant in the aperture l1 and then permit it to drop. Naturally, if the caps were simply pushed to aperture I1 and permitted to then fall while still having a forward moment, they would have a tendency to tilt during falling and might not drop in the exactly desired spot upon the conveyer.

The mechanism for holding the caps for an instant in the aperture I! is best illustrated in Figures 4 to '7. Referring to Figure 6, it will be observed that plate [4 has a rin 50 secured to its undersurface, the ring having an inner diameter corresponding to the diameter of the aperture I! in the plate. An annular plate 51 is secured to ring 50, plate also having a bore therethrough of the same size as the inner diameter of ring 50. The upper surface of plate 5| is notched at several equidistantly spaced points as indicated at 52. Small vertical .pins 53 are mounted in ring 55 with their lower ends extending into the notches 52. Cap supporting members 54 of the form best shown in Figure 7 are rotatalbly mounted on the pins. Each supporting member 54 has a tang 55 at its inner end and the outer ends of the members 54 are slotted to receive vertical pins 51 mounted in a collar 58 surrounding ring 50.

As is indicated in Figure '7, rotation of collar 58 with respect to fixed ring 50 will cause the supporting members 54 to be simultaneously swung from one limit position to the other. -Co1- lar 58 is urged in a clockwise direction with respect to Figure '7 by a coil spring .60 extending between the ring and the plate [4. In such position, the tangs 55 will be held within the bore l1 as shown in solid lines in Figure they may support a cap therein. In order to change the position of the members 54 from that just described, collar 58 has an arm 5| secured thereto and pivotally connected to a link 62. Link 62 is pivotally connected at 63 to a lever 64 pivoted at 65 to the support I 2. It will be noted from Figure 4 that lever 64 extends into the path of a trip 66 secured to the outer end of the reciprocating carrier 24.

In operation, assuming that while the tangs 55 are in the normal position shown in solid lines in Figure 7, on feeding movement of elements [6 and 24, a cap will be dropped upon the tangs. On return movement of carrier 24 and pushing element It, the trip 66 will strike lever parallel with the line of movement of oonveyer latter to a position substantially on a row near one conveyer still spaced by a tray length,

I517, thereby moving link 62 to the left in Figure 4 to rotate collar 58 in a counter-clockwise direction against spring 6!]. Such rotation of collar 58 will cause the members 54 to be swung so that the tangs 55 projected within the aperture 11 will be withdrawn into the cut-outs 52, permitting the cap supported by the tangs to drop upon conveyer 151) or upon the trays T supported thereon.

Immediately trip 66 moves out of contact with lever 64, as when carrier 24 start; another cap feeding movement, spring 60 will cause the members 54 to swing so that their tangs 55 will project intothe aperture I! in readiness to receive the cap which is being advanced by the pushing element l6.

It will be observed that because the tangs support the cap perfectly horizontally, and, because all of the tang-s simultaneously move from beneath the cap, the latter can only drop directly downwardly and without any tilting such as might cause them to slide with respect, to the conveyer 0r trays upon which they fall.

In. the device shown in Figure 3 for placing caps on row L a collar 88' on rod 211 performs the function of trip 56.

Figures 12 to 1'? illustrate the drive mechanism for the conveyors His and 152). This mechanism comprises the subject matter of our application for Drive mechanisms, Serial No. 623,036, filed October 18, 1945, as a division of the present case. Subject matter disclosed but notclairned in the present casemay be claimed in said divisional application. Each conveyer has its own drive means, the two being identical except that their positions are reversed so that both must drive their ecnveyers in the same direction. In view of the similarity of the two conveyer drives the drive of only one is described in detail herein, namely, the drive on the conveyer i5a shown at the left in Figure 12.

It will be obvious that in some instances one wide conveyer could be used instead of two arranged in tandem.

Conveyer l5a is driven from'the motor l8 acting through a drive chain 15. Chain 15 engages a sprocket on the shaft l9 which, as, hereinbefore explained, drives the various caplining and cap feeding mechanisms positioned alongside the conveyer 15a. A large sprocket on shaft I9 drives a chain 15 engaging a sprocket upon the shaft 11 of a speed reduction unit 18., The speed reduction unit includes a shaft 19 which comprises the driving shaft for the conveyer Me.

As best shown in Figures 13to 17, shaft 19 has a sprocket wheel SB fixed thereto which drives a sprocket chain passing about a sprocket Wheel 82 forming part of an overrunning clutch mechanism 83. Clutch mechanism 83 includes two housing elements 84 and 85, one on each side of and free of sprocket wheel 82. The two housing members are secured together by bolts 86 which extend through a ratchet wheel 81 to hold the latter to the housing members. Housing members 84 and 85 and ratchet wheel 8'! are keyed to the drivenshaft 88 which carries a pair of large sprocket wheels 89 which directly engage the conveyer l5a.

As illustrated in Figure 16, the sprocket wheel 82 is recessed as indicated at 99 to receive a pawl 9i normally held in engagement with the teeth of ratchet wheel 8'! by a spring 92. V

The arrangement described immediately above comprises the normally effective driving means for the conveyer. That is, assuming that the sprocket chain is moving in the direction of the arrow illustrated in Figure '17. o to rotate sprocket wheel 32 in a corresponding direction, the pawl 9I will act upon the ratchet wheel 87 to rotate shaft 88. It will be noted that the sprocket wheel 82 included in overrunning clutch mechanism 83 only ha an operative connection with shaft 83 by reason of the action of pawl 9! sprocket wheel 82 otherwise being independent of shaft 88. Obviously, so long as pawl 55 is in driving engagement with ratchet wheel 81', conveyer shaft 88 will rotate at a predetermined speed controlled by sprocket chain 8 I.

In order to intermittently accelerate the speed of movement of the conveyer I541, the driving shaft "I9 has a cam 95 fixed thereto as shown in Figure 15 and 17 and this cam is engaged by a follower 95 including a roller 97 to bear on, the periphery of cam 95. Follower 55 may include fork elements 97 to engage the hub 98 of cam 95. Hub 98 is keyed to shaft I9 and may also carry the sprocket wheel 80.

The follower 96 is pivotally connected as, at 99 to one arm I00 of a bell crank IIlI freely mounted on the driven shaft 88. The other arm I02 of bell crank IOI has a stud I03 secured in its outer end on which a pawl I04 is pivotally mounted. Pawl I04 bears upon a ratchet element or ratchet wheel I05 secured to the driven shaft 08. In the present arrangement ratchet wheel I 95 is provided with a single tooth I06.

The operation of the cam 95 and the elements actuated thereby including, the pawl I fit! is as follows: During the time that the low portion of cam 95 is moving beneath the roller 9! of the follower 95, bell crank IIlI will be in such posi-- tion that pawl I04 will be at the point shown in dotted lines in Figure 13. Ratchet element I05 will be rotating beneath the pawl I04 in a clockwise direction with shaft 88 since the latter shaft is at that time being driven through chain 8| by pawl 9| of Figure 16.

However, when the rise 95a of cam 95 moves beneath roller 91, follower 96 will be lifted to the position shown in Figure 13 to rotate bell crank IOI in a clockwise direction with respect to Figures l3 and 17 and thereby move pawl I04 to the position shown in solid lines in Figure 13. An instant before thislifting movement of the fol lower 96 begins, the tooth I06 of ratchet I05 will have rotated beneath the pawl I04 so that the face of the pawl is now in engagement with the tooth. As a result, the lifting movement of the follower will cause pawl I04 to act on tooth I00 to rotate the ratchet I05 in, a clockwise direction. Since the ratchet is fixed to shaft 08, which is the conveyer driving shaft, the conveyer will be correspondingly moved at an accelerated speed. This rotation of shaft 88 will be entirely independent of sprocket wheel 82 and sprocket chain wheel 81 included in the overrunning clutch element 83 will simply rotate beneath pawl SI.

The above-described rotation of shaft 88 through cam 95 and pawl I04 will terminate at an instant when the pawl 9I of the overrunning clutch has dropped into engagement with a tooth of ratchet wheel 81 so that there will be no pause in the driving of the conveyer shaft 88. Furthermore, the contour of the rise 95a on cam 95 is such that the movement of bell crank I9I in a clockwise direction will begin with a gradually accelerated speed and will terminate at a gradually decelerated speed. It therefore results that no jerking will be imparted to the movement of the edg of the 1 one longitudinal row on the 12 the conveyer I 5a such as might cause caps to slide about the same. Nevertheless, cam will advance the conveyer I5a at a sufficiently rapid speed that between the time that the cap feeding mechanism has placed the last cap in a tray T and before it can then drop a succeeding cap, the end walls of the trays will have moved past the cap dropping apertures I! and the succeeding cap will therefore drop into the following tray T entirely clear of the leading end wall of thattray.

It will be understood that if the caps or other articles are to be placed directly upon a conveyer, instead of in trays, the cam 95 and the mechanism associated therewith may be eliminated and the conveyer may 'be; directly driven.

The general. operation. of the entire apparatus has been set forth in the opening portion of this specification and the detailed operation of each of the various-mechanisms included in the invention; has been stated in connection with the de: scription of the specific construction of these mechanisms.

The terminology used in the specification is for the purpose of description and not of limitation, the scope of the invention being indicated by the claims.

We claim:

1. In an apparatus of the character described, a conveyer, a plate element above the conveyer having a cut-out therein substantially corresponding to the outline of the articles being handled, means to move articles on the plate to the cut-out so that they will drop upon the conveyer, means associated with the cut-out to support articles within the same, and means to intermittently move said last-named means out of article supporting position to enable the articles tov drop upon the conveyer.

. 2. In an apparatus of the character described, a conveyer, a plate element above the conveyer having an aperture therein, means to move articles on the plate to the aperture so that they will drop upon the conveyer, means associated with the. aperture to support articles within the same, and means to intermittently move said last-named means, out of article. supporting position to enable the articles to drop upon the conveyer, said means being, operatively connected to said article moving means.

3. In combination, a conveyer, a series of article feeding mechanisms at one side of the conveyer and, reciprocably movable along lines extending at an angle to the line of conveyer movement to move articles, to the conveyer, said mechanism being so positioned with respect to conveyer that each will place articles in a row extending longitudinally of the conveyer and spaced transversely with respect to the rows placed thereon by the other mechanisms of said series, a second series of said feeding mechanisms on the opposite side of the conveyer, One feedin mechanism of the first series being directly opposite a feeding mechanism of th second series, the respectively opposed mechanisms of each series being arranged to place articles in rows at different distances from the edges of the conveyer so that the strokes of the'opposed reciprocating mechanisms will not overlap.

4. In an apparatus of the character described, conveyer means to receive and support articles in rows extending longitudinally thereof, and a series of mechanisms-spaced along the, path of the conveyer each. adapted. to. place articles-in conveyer, each of which are respectively spaced said mechanisms including a plate element spaced above the conveyer and having a cutout therein, means to move articles to the cutout to drop through the latter to the conveyer, the cut-outs of the plate elements being positioned in alignment with the rows of articles upon the conveyer.

5. In an apparatus of the character described, a plate element having a cut-out therein, means at the cut-out to support articles therein and movable to a non-supporting position, means to move articles along said plate element to the cutout, said last-named means being operatively connected to said article supporting means to control the position of the latter.

6. In an apparatus of the character described, a plate element having a cut-out therein, means at the cut-out to support articles therein and movable to a non-supporting position, reciprocable means to move articles along said plate element to the cut-out, an operating connection between said reciprocating means and said article supporting means whereby movement of the former in one direction will move the latter to non-supporting position, said article supporting means tion.

'7. In an apparatus of the character described, a plate element, a carrier element reciprocable abov said plate element to have an article feeding stroke and a reverse stroke, an article feeding element pivoted on said carrier on a line extending parallel to the line of movement of the carrier, said article feeding element being so mounted with respect to said carrier element as to remain in contact with said plat element on the article feeding stroke of said carrier element, and a cam positioned directly in the path of movement of the article feeding element with said carrier to swing the former on its pivot to lift it from contact with said plate element during the reverse stroke of said carrier element.

8. In an apparatus of the character described, an articl supporting plate, an article engaging element reciprocable above said plate, said element being pivotally mounted to swing in a plane transversely of its line of reciprocation, and a cam positioned directly in the path of movement of said element to press the latter toward the plate during movement in one direction and to lift the element away from the plate during movement in the opposite direction.

9. In an apparatus of the character described, a moving conveyer, a plate element above the conveyer having an aperture therein, a reciprocable element movable transversely of the conveyer, an article feeding element pivotally carried on said reciprocable element to move articles to the aperture, means to hold said feeding element adjacent the plate during article advancin movement and to lift the same from the plate during retracting movement.

10. In an apparatus of the character described, a moving conveyer, a plate element above the conveyer having an aperture therein, a carrier element reciprocable above said plate element alon a line substantially transverse with respect to the movement of the conveyer, an article feeding element pivoted on said carrier on a line extending parallel to the line of movement of the carrier, and means to hold said article feeding element in contact with the plate element during article feeding movement and to lift said feeding element from said plate during retracting movement.

to supporting posiand means to urge 11. In an apparatus of the character described, a moving conveyer, a plate element above the conveyer having an aperture therein, a carrier element reciprocable above said plate element along a line substantially transverse with respect to the movement of the conveyer, an article feeding element pivoted on sad carrier on a horizontal line extending parallel to the line of movement of the carrier, 3, spring connection between said carrier element and article feeding element to urge the latter in contact with the plate during article feeding movement, and means in the path of movement of the article feeding element with respect to the conveyer to relatively vary the position of the latter with respect to the plate during article feeding and retracting movements, respectively.

12. In an apparatus of the character described, a moving conveyer, a support over which received metal articles may move to be delivered to said conveyer, magnetic means on said support intermediate the point at which it receives articles and the point from which it hold an article stationary, and article-engaging means to feed articles to said magnetic means and then move them to the delivery point.

13. A tray loading apparatus comprising a conveyer to support trays in a series lengthwise of the conveyer, a series of article feeding mechanisms spaced longitudinally along one run of the conveyer and movable along lines extending at an angle to the line of conveyer movement to deposit articles in trays on the conveyer, said respective mechanisms being spaced different distances from the longitudinal center-line of the conveyer so that each mechanism will place articles in a row extending longitudinally of the conveyer and spaced transversely of the conveyer with respect to the rows placed thereon by the other of said mechanisms, said feeding mechanisms being so spaced with respect to each other longitudinally of the conveyer and their feeding operations being so synchronized with respect to each other and to the normal movement of the conveyer that an article will be simultaneously deposited by each mechanism at a corresponding point lengthwise of each one of a plurality of trays.

14. A tray loading apparatus comprising a conveyer to support trays in a series lengthwise of the conveyer, a series of article feeding mechanisms spaced longitudinally along one run of the conveyer and movable along lines extending at an angle to the line of conveyer movement to deposit articles in trays 0n the conveyer, said respective mechanisms being spaced different distances from the longitudinal center-line of the conveyer so that each mechanism will place articles in a row extending longitudinally of the conveyer and spaced transversely of the conveyer with respect to the rows placed thereon by the other of said mechanisms, said feeding mechanisms being so spaced with respect to each other longitudinally of the conveyer and their feeding operations being so synchronized with respect to each other and to the normal movement of the conveyer that an article will be simultaneously deposited by each mechanism at a corresponding point lengthwise of each one of a plurality of trays, and means to accelerate the movement of the conveyer after a feeding mechanism has placed a full row of articles in a tray.

EIBE A. WILCKENS. ELLIS M. MAGILL.

delivers articles to. 

